BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) Raised to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• BJ's Restaurants has been upgraded from a "hold" to a "buy" rating by Wall Street Zen, signaling increased investor confidence.
• Barclays set a new price target of $37.00, while Benchmark upgraded their target to $44.00, indicating varying perceptions of the stock's potential among analysts.
• The company reported $0.97 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations and reflecting a 4.5% increase in revenue year-over-year.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on BJRI. Barclays boosted their price target on BJ's Restaurants from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $33.00 target price on BJ's Restaurants and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on BJ's Restaurants from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Benchmark upgraded BJ's Restaurants from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $39.67.

BJ's Restaurants Stock Performance

Shares of BJRI opened at $35.11 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business's 50 day moving average price is $40.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.07. BJ's Restaurants has a 52 week low of $27.89 and a 52 week high of $47.02. The stock has a market cap of $776.63 million, a P/E ratio of 29.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.59.

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.28. BJ's Restaurants had a return on equity of 11.73% and a net margin of 1.99%. The firm had revenue of $365.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $362.74 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that BJ's Restaurants will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BJ's Restaurants

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in shares of BJ's Restaurants during the 1st quarter valued at $69,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new position in shares of BJ's Restaurants during the 1st quarter valued at $97,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 18.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 2,189 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $98,000 after buying an additional 334 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 51.8% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,887 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $99,000 after buying an additional 985 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of BJ's Restaurants by 77.5% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,317 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $103,000 after buying an additional 1,012 shares during the period. 99.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

BJ's Restaurants Company Profile

BJ's Restaurants, Inc owns and operates casual dining restaurants in the United States. Its restaurants offer pizzas, craft and other beers, appetizers, entrées, pastas, sandwiches, specialty salads, and desserts under brand name Pizookie. The company was formerly known as Chicago Pizza & Brewery, Inc and changed its name to BJ's Restaurants, Inc in August 2004.

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